Read More

That quota was due to drop to two wildcard picks for the 2019-20 season, but in the light of scrum half Rhys Webb joining Taulupe Faletau, Dan Biggar, George North, Rhys Priestland and Jamie Roberts in opting to play his club rugby overseas, a revamp became unavoidable.

The new policy, which is similar to Australia’s approach, makes any player with more than 60 caps eligible for their country regardless of where their club rugby is played.

North, Faletau and Roberts will all immediately benefit, while Biggar (56) will probably reach the threshold before leaving Ospreys for Northampton in May.

Players like Young, who were plying their trade outside of Wales when Gatland’s Law took effect, are currently outside the restrictions. As a consequence, the former Cardiff Blue, who joined Wasps in 2014, won his first two caps last summer against Samoa and Tonga.

Thomas Young is tackled by Jonathan Joseph during the Aviva Premiership match between Wasps and Bath Rugby

However, according to WRU group chief executive Martyn Phillips’ statement, that protected status disappears when those players’ current contracts end.

“Whatever the contract the player is in, that’s the contract that in effect is protected,” he said.

“When that contract expires, if the player has less than 60 caps and they’re playing outside of Wales then they wouldn’t be eligible for selection.

“If they’ve got 60 or more caps and they’re outside of Wales then they would be.

“The revamped policy will be reviewed periodically but, fundamentally, if you have less than 60 caps and you leave Wales then you won’t be selected by your country again until you return.

Read More

Ulster v Wasps

“In the spirit of absolute fairness we will start anew from Monday 16th October 2017 and give those players who have existing contracts outside of Wales the chance to come back on completion of those contracts, before this new policy affects them.”

Wasps never release details of players’ contracts, but Young signed his most recent deal 12 months ago.

The four Welsh regions have also received financial assistance from the WRU in recent times. This enables them to keep leading talent such as skipper Sam Warburton, and Bradley Davies who returned to Wales from Wasps 16 months ago, in the Pro-14 at least until the 2019 World Cup.